What Can I Do To Help You?

While I know that this is for cops to talk shop, vent about administration, and that sort of thing, I would like to pose a question that I have never seen before on this forum. Let me make it clear. I am 100% civilian, and I have never been a LEO; although, I have known several LEO's over the years.

Here is the question:

What can I, as a private citizen, do to help you guys? I mean besides being polite and cooperative if stopped on a traffic stop and such.

Comments

Very good...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Panzergrenadier1979

Don't make negative assumptions based on confusing things you see, but for which you don't know all the background details. There is usually a method, a cause, a reason for an officer doing something that might appear odd. Don't rush to judgement and don't call to complain; you'll look like a fool.

An officer shopping at Walmart might be buying office supplies for work out of his own pocket.

An officer who is given a free cup of coffee at a convenience store might not be able to take his wife to most restaurants in the area that he work/live area because many of the people the officer has arrested over the years works in at those eating establishments....and hold grudges.

An officer who fails to pull over a vehicle for an obvious traffic violation might be on his way back to his station after clearing a scene.... 4 hours after his shift officially ended; or, he might be on his way to a call for service or to a court hearing.

Four police cars parked at a coffee shop might belong to officers getting the only 15 minute break that they'll get during a busy 12 hour shift.

An officer who conducts a traffic stop on an off-duty police officer and let's them leave with a warning has given hundreds of such warnings to complete strangers who are not cops and who he will likely never see again.

An officer who is exceeding the speed limit by 10 miles per hour might be trying to approach a suspect vehicle without alerting them to the fact that the police are nearby. Likewise, a police vehicle that is exceeding the speed limit might be approaching the scene of an active crime and the officer has just turned off their lights and sirens so as to not endanger the victim by alerting the subject that the police are coming. Someday that victim might be you.

A police officer on a cell phone might be talking to a complainant/victim who requests an officer to call them.

Be an informed citizen. Vote for intelligent city and county elected officials who want a decent community. Hold them accountable when they screw up and when something needs to be said, go to a city council meeting or county board meeting and speak out. That alone would help immensely.